Live, From NY, It’s PULSE

After seven days in the Big Apple, MMG can officially dub PULSE NY 2010 a success. Our days were peppered with finicky heaters, tinkling gelato carts and hundreds of pounds of oil paint (literally) – not to mention TMZ-worthy celebuzz and waning cell phone reception in the concrete bunker that is 330 West Street.

Kim Dorland churned out what was easily the most “hold-up-omg-is-that-all-paint?!” collection of works to date. With a solo show in Santa Monica just on the heels of his solo booth (opening March 20th), we can safely assume prolific tendencies are not an issue when it comes to him. Kim assured us we would be delivered a show-stopper, and show-stopper it was…also a spine-stopper as the focal point of the booth, “Star Gazing,” weighed over 250 pounds. Kim – clearly – has a sharp sense of humor, but with seven paintings finding homes in excellent collections, we will allow him to continue with his gluttonous oil-and-acrylic shenanigans.

A special public installation by Tim Bavington garnered quite a bit of attention as well. Between the Vegas-strip-esque striped wallpaper and amorphous paintings, the corridor between the entrance and the coat check was transformed into a vibrating optical rabbit hole. Four of these studio-fresh works found homes on just Day One of the fair.

In the few minutes that the MMG crew had to stray away from the confines our our booth, we saw a few familiar faces (so to speak): Ali Smith and Kenichi Yokono in Freight + Volume’s booth, as well as new works by David Ryan and Kiel Johnson with Davidson Contemporary looked uber-fabulous, and ultimately found their way into some choice collections.

A few other highlights:

– Dinner with Yigal Ozeri and the crew from Mike Weiss Gallery included meeting Jessica from “Jessica with Vines” – a featured painting at PULSE Miami this past December. Turns out Yigal’s accuracy is staggering, as is the length of Jessica’s strawberry-hued hair.

– Guest appearances by Dimitri Kozyrev, David Ryan, Ben Weiner and Kim Dorland – with his family in tow.

– A brief foray into the Armory Show, where DCKT’s solo booth of new works by Cordy Ryman prompted much drooling and jaw-dropping. So much so, that owner Mark Moore practically barreled over Bjork in an effort to make it back to the booth for a second viewing.

All in all, we suspect we’ll be back next year – hopefully without Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” on repeat in our brains. Adios, NYC. Love ya, mean it, kiss, kiss.